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JSOnline:
Senate advances collective bargaining changes; Democrats to return after Assembly action — Republicans advance bill curbing most collective bargaining; Maneuver ignites furious protests — By Patrick Marley and Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel — Madison — With Democrats still in Illinois …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Note, Ben Smith's Blog, Left Coast Rebel, Right Turn, JustOneMinute, The Gateway Pundit, The Plum Line, Right Wing News, NPR Topics, Outside the Beltway, TBogg, The Hill, WISC-TV, iOwnTheWorld.com, New York Magazine, Examiner, Power Line, Taylor Marsh, Michelle Malkin, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Balloon Juice, Cubachi, Pundit & Pundette, Sister Toldjah, The Daily Caller and Patterico's Pontifications
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Scott Walker / Wall Street Journal:
Why I'm Fighting in Wisconsin — We can avoid mass teacher layoffs and reward our best performers. But we have to act now. — In 2010, Megan Sampson was named an Outstanding First Year Teacher in Wisconsin. A week later, she got a layoff notice from the Milwaukee Public Schools.
Ezra Klein:
What happened in Wisconsin tonight — Here's what just happened in Wisconsin: The rules of the state's Senate require a quorum for any measures that spend money. That's how the absence of the Senate's Democrats could stymie Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget law — it spent money, and thus it needed a quorum.
Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Protesters are locking the Capitol doors shut from the inside using metal handcuffs, Meade reports from the scene. — He told me that just now, by phone. He got out, and is warning others not to go in. Obviously, it's a terrible fire hazard to make it so people cannot get out of the building easily.
Discussion:
“Badger 14”, Left Coast Rebel, Pajamas Media, NewsBusters.org, Instapundit, The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Anti-Public Employee Bill Passes Senate in Wisconsin; Only the Beginning of the Fight — Wisconsin's Capitol dome in Madison (photo: WxMom) — If you've been following along in my last post, you know the news: the Wisconsin State Senate rushed through and passed a bill …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Ezra Klein, Daily Kos, BizTimes Daily, naked capitalism, National Review, Rortybomb, Angry Bear, The Moderate Voice and Bloomberg
Ezra Klein:
Was what Scott Walker did legal? — Assuming Scott Walker's procedural maneuvering last night was legal — and, as I'll explain in a moment, there are some questions about that — then it was also legitimate. Certainly as legitimate as the Democrats fleeing the state to deny the Republicans quorum.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Christian Schneider / National Review:
How the Wisconsin Senate Passed Walker's Bill — On Wednesday night, Wisconsin Senate Republicans did what most people thought impossible — they passed Governor Scott Walker's budget-repair bill virtually intact, without having to split out controversial provisions that limited the ability …
Discussion:
Right Wing News and Moe Lane
Monica Davey / New York Times:
Wisconsin Senate Limits Bargaining by Public Workers
Wisconsin Senate Limits Bargaining by Public Workers
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, FiveThirtyEight, CNN, Feministing, The Impolitic, Talking Points Memo, JSOnline and FrumForum
John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Breaking: Without Democrats Present, Wisconsin Senate Voting on Largely-Intact Budget Repair Bill
Breaking: Without Democrats Present, Wisconsin Senate Voting on Largely-Intact Budget Repair Bill
Discussion:
National Review, Mediaite and Pajamas Media
Scott Bauer / Associated Press:
Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining
Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining
Discussion:
Vox Popoli, Scared Monkeys, JSOnline, JammieWearingFool, Althouse and Pajamas Media
Jeff Mayers / Reuters:
Wisconsin Senate passes union curbs as protesters rally
Wisconsin Senate passes union curbs as protesters rally
Discussion:
Guardian and Weasel Zippers
Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Chaos at the Wisconsin Capitol tonight.
David Weigel / Weigel:
Wisconsin Senate GOP Tries Nuclear Option for Passing Anti-Union Bill [UPDATE: It Worked]
Wisconsin Senate GOP Tries Nuclear Option for Passing Anti-Union Bill [UPDATE: It Worked]
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Fox News, Mediaite and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Michael A. Fletcher / Washington Post:
Republican Wisconsin senators bypass Democrats in vote on collective bargaining
Republican Wisconsin senators bypass Democrats in vote on collective bargaining
Discussion:
The Fix, TPMDC, The Politico and Fox News
Lee Fang / ThinkProgress:
WI Senate GOP Leader Admits On-Air That His Goal Is To Defund Labor Unions, Hurt Obama's Reelection Chances
WI Senate GOP Leader Admits On-Air That His Goal Is To Defund Labor Unions, Hurt Obama's Reelection Chances
Discussion:
TPMDC, Examiner, Daily Kos, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The New Republic, The Mahablog and Hullabaloo
Ed Lavandera / CNN:
Wisconsin Senate passes union limits despite Democratic walkout
Wisconsin Senate passes union limits despite Democratic walkout
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Mish's Global Economic … and Pharyngula
Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:
Christie's Talk Is Blunt, but Not Always Straight — New Jersey's public-sector unions routinely pressure the State Legislature to give them what they fail to win in contract talks. Most government workers pay nothing for health insurance. Concessions by school employees would have prevented any cuts in school programs last year.
Discussion:
Gothamist, Mediaite, PoliPundit.com, Oliver Willis, Don Surber, New York Magazine and Prairie Weather
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
As hearings begin, Peter King reveals threat against him — ‘If we know a threat is there ... how can we not investigate it?’ King said Thursday. AP Photo — Ahead of his controversial hearing Thursday on the “radicalization” of American Muslims, Rep. Peter King is revealing …
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CNN
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Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
Peter King's Muslim hearings are not the first
Peter King's Muslim hearings are not the first
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, The Hill, Weigel, The Note and CNN
Patricia Murphy / Politics Daily:
Rep. Peter King's Hearing on American Muslims: How Radical? How Dangerous?
Rep. Peter King's Hearing on American Muslims: How Radical? How Dangerous?
Discussion:
New York Times and The Investigative Project …
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
GOP: Full speed ahead on defunding NPR — TAGS: - Corporation for Public Broadcasting - House Republicans - National Public Radio - npr - vivian schiller — Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork — After the release of the James O'Keefe sting video Tuesday …
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JSOnline:
The quiet after the Capitol storm — Madison - After a wild and raucous night at the State Capitol, the scene inside the building Thursday morning looks just like it was a few weeks ago when protesters camped out overnight. — At 6:30 a.m., there were dozens of people who stayed the night …
Discussion:
Hot Air and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
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BBC:
Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team — Goktay Koraltan and Feras Killani said other detainees had been badly beaten — Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's security forces detained and beat up a BBC news team who were trying to reach the strife-torn western city of Zawiya.
Discussion:
New York Times, AOL News, War in Context, Prairie Weather, msnbc.com and FrumForum, more at Mediagazer »
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Spending plan vote backfires as Democrats suffer defections — Senate Democrats suffered a wave of defections Wednesday as their proposal to cut just over $6 billion from federal spending this year went down to defeat. — The Democratic bill attracted two fewer votes than the rival GOP measure …
Discussion:
The Hill and Booman Tribune
Linda Greenhouse / Opinionator:
Justice Scalia Objects — One rough measure of how any Supreme Court term is going is to track the decibel level of Justice Antonin Scalia's dissenting opinions. In a case last week, the question was whether statements made to the police by a shooting victim as he lay bleeding to death …
Discussion:
Mirror of Justice and The Volokh Conspiracy
Expressen:
Interrogator in the Assange case friend with woman accusing Wikileaks founder — The police interrogator in the Julian Assange-investigation is a friend of one of the two women who is accusing the Wikileaks founder och sexual assault, Expressen can now reveal.
Discussion:
Guardian, Blogcritics and The Wire
The Politico:
John Boehner must join: no budget, no pay — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a recent speech in Nashville, Tenn., said it was our “moral responsibility” to avoid a government shutdown. — We couldn't agree more. So we are now urging him to take a critical step to help take the threat of a government shutdown off the table.
Discussion:
Stop The ACLU
James C. McKinley Jr / New York Times:
Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town — CLEVELAND, Tex. — The police investigation began shortly after Thanksgiving, when an elementary school student alerted a teacher to a lurid cellphone video that included one of her classmates. — The video led the police to an abandoned trailer …
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